Communications

Tools of communication have transformed American society time and again over the past two centuries. The Museum has preserved many instruments of these changes, from printing presses to personal digital assistants.

The collections include hundreds of artifacts from the printing trade and related fields, including papermaking equipment, wood and metal type collections, bookbinding tools, and typesetting machines. Benjamin Franklin is said to have used one of the printing presses in the collection in 1726.

More than 7,000 objects chart the evolution of electronic communications, including the original telegraph of Samuel Morse and Alexander Graham Bell's early telephones. Radios, televisions, tape recorders, and the tools of the computer age are part of the collections, along with wireless phones and a satellite tracking system.

This postcard view of the Garden of Mission Santa Barbara was published by the Edward H. Mitchell company of San Francisco about 1908, as a photomechanical lithograph. The Edward H.
Description (Brief)
This postcard view of the Garden of Mission Santa Barbara was published by the Edward H. Mitchell company of San Francisco about 1908, as a photomechanical lithograph. The Edward H. Mitchell company published postcards between about 1900 and 1928.
Founded in 1786, Mission Santa Barbara was the tenth of twenty-one Spanish Franciscan missions established in California between 1769 and 1823. The mission was built to convert American Indians of the Chumash tribe to Catholicism.
Today the mission serves as a parish church and includes a museum, a Franciscan friary, or monastery, and a retreat site.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1900
graphic artist
Mitchell, Edward H.
ID Number
GA.24880.016
catalog number
24880.016
accession number
1978.0801
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
original artist
Perry, Jr., E. Wood
ID Number
GA.24129
catalog number
GA*24129
accession number
317875
This postcard view of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel was printed by the E.C. Kropp company using the collotype printing process. The Kropp postcard publishing company was founded in 1898 in Milwaukee, Wis. The publishing name of E. C.
Description (Brief)
This postcard view of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel was printed by the E.C. Kropp company using the collotype printing process. The Kropp postcard publishing company was founded in 1898 in Milwaukee, Wis. The publishing name of E. C. Kropp was used between 1907 and 1956.
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel was founded in 1771 near the city of Montebello, Calif., the fourth of twenty-one Spanish Franciscan missions established in California between 1769 and 1823. The mission was built to convert American Indians of the Tongva tribe to Catholicsim. It was moved in 1775 to its present location in Los Angelese County.
Today the facility contains a church and a museum.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1907
graphic artist
Kropp, E. C.
ID Number
GA.24880.081
catalog number
24880.081
accession number
1978.0801
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1887
ID Number
GA.02538
catalog number
02538
accession number
21937
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1886
inventor
Day, Jr., Benjamin Henry
ID Number
GA.02537
catalog number
02537
accession number
21937
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.02536
catalog number
02536
accession number
21937
P. S. Duval and Company (ca 1840s-1858) of Philadelphia produced this chromolithographic print from an original illustration by John M. Stanley (1814-1872).
Description (Brief)
P. S. Duval and Company (ca 1840s-1858) of Philadelphia produced this chromolithographic print from an original illustration by John M. Stanley (1814-1872). The image of "Wooden Ware, etc." was published as Plate X in Volume 2, following page 116 of Appendix E (Indian Antiquities) by Thomas Ewbank (1792-1870) in the report describing "The U.S. Naval Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere during the Years 1849, 1850, 1851, and 1852" by James M. Gillis (1811-1865). The volume was printed in 1855 by A. O. P. Nicholson (1808-1876) of Washington, D.C.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1855
original artist
Wallis, O. J.
Dreser, William
Herbst, Francis
graphic artist
Sinclair, Thomas
Dougal, William H.
Duval, Peter S.
printer
Nicholson, A. O. P.
publisher
United States Navy
original artist
Richard, John H.
Stanley, John Mix
Siebert, Selmar
author
Cassin, John
Ewbank, Thomas
Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Gilliss, James Melville
ID Number
2007.0204.01
accession number
2007.0204
catalog number
2007.0204.01
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1893
original artist
Jones, Hugh Bolton
Jones, Francis Coates
publisher
American Cereal Company
lithographer
Armstrong and Company
ID Number
2012.0093.15
accession number
2012.0093
catalog number
2012.0093.15
Elaborate folding valentine featuring die-cut automobile of about 1900 set against a gilded architectural framework resting on a blue, cloud-like scalloped ground. "To My Valentine" and "Printed in Germany" are printed on the verso of the bottom fold.
Description (Brief)
Elaborate folding valentine featuring die-cut automobile of about 1900 set against a gilded architectural framework resting on a blue, cloud-like scalloped ground. "To My Valentine" and "Printed in Germany" are printed on the verso of the bottom fold. The valentine was given by David E. Ream to Marion A. Hartman (Ream) early in their lives together. They were married in 1915. The valentine was displayed in their Pennsylvania home every February, a tradition continued by their granddaughter Pat Compher who donated the card in 2013.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1905-1915
ID Number
2013.0170.01
catalog number
2013.0170.01
accession number
2013.0170
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1905
associated person
Dollinger, Louisa Amalia
Dollinger, Wilhelmina
Dollinger, Wilhelm
graphic artist
Jennings and Pye
ID Number
1986.0428.10
accession number
1986.0428
catalog number
1986.0428.10

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